Ashley Park got real about dealing with racism and "being accommodating" in Hollywood, and she makes an incredible point.
Ashley is the star of the new film Joy Ride, a buddy comedy starring her, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola, and Sabrina Wu as four pals who go on a hilariously chaotic business trip to Asia.
You might have seen Ashley as Mindy Chen in Emily in Paris.
Now, in her first leading role, in a movie written and directed by all Asian women — Ashley spoke on the differences she experienced working on this film.
Talking to People, Ashley reflected on existing in spaces as an Asian actor and the effects of "code-switching" to feel included. Filming Joy Ride was the experience that truly opened her eyes.
"First of all, Sabrina and Stephanie and Sherry, all of us are so happy and conditioned to be supporting characters," she said. "It really did feel like family right off the bat. And there's a certain level of comfort, especially with [writer] Teresa [Hsiao] and [director] Adele [Lim] and [writer] Cherry [Chevapravatdumrong] at the helm."
In the film, Ashley plays Audrey, a successful lawyer who assimilates to fit in with her white male coworkers to advance in her career. As the daughter of Korean immigrants growing up in Michigan, it's an experience that hit close to home for the 32-year-actor.
"That's actually why I understand Audrey so well," she said. "I want to acknowledge that I'm complicit and completely figuring out a way to be a part of that world. I am Audrey in that way."
"It's an accommodating thing," she added, referring to assimilation. "It's what people do on a basic level, and I did times a thousand to be everybody's safe place. Because I always had a chip on my shoulder of 'Oh well, if that role wasn't supposed to be Asian, I probably would never have gotten it because I wasn't good enough.'"
In her own career, Ashley admitted to code-switching to fit in certain spaces, an experience that's all too real for people of color in many industries. "We code-switch because we're trying to find a way to be indispensable to people, whether as their buddy or confidant," she said.
"The reason code-switching really helped me as an actor is because I'm really good at immediately observing what somebody needs and what somebody feels safe with. Not changing myself for that, but because it makes me feel good to be that for them. But that compromised me as a person a lot."
"We talked about it a lot, me and Adele and Cherry and Teresa," Ashley added. "I didn't have to code-switch for anyone, and I could just be there as myself. I can be me."
This is why representation in productions like Joy Ride is important. It allows underrepresented groups to learn new ways of existing in professional spaces that don't require changing their speech, behavior, and expression to feel included.
Joy Ride is in theaters now. Check out the trailer below:
